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Study highlights impact of government vaccine recommendations and direct-to-consumer pharmaceutical advertising

A new study co-authored by a University of Massachusetts Amherst economist reveals the value of government vaccine recommendations to drugmakers, as well as potential benefits of advertising pharmaceuticals directly to consumers - a practice that is banned in every country apart from the United States and New Zealand.

13 Mar 2024

Concerns grow over quality of care as investor groups buy not-for-profit nursing homes

Shelly Olson's mother, who has dementia, has lived at the Scandia Village nursing home in rural Sister Bay, Wisconsin, for almost five years. At first, Olson said, her mother received great care at the facility, then owned by a not-for-profit organization, the Evangelical Lutheran Good Samaritan Society.

13 Mar 2024

An Arm and a Leg: The Medicare episode

Medicare may sound like an escape from the expensive world of U.S. health insurance, but it's more complicated, and expensive, than many realize.

11 Mar 2024

Why covid patients who could most benefit from paxlovid still aren’t getting it

Evangelical minister Eddie Hyatt believes in the healing power of prayer but "also the medical approach." So on a February evening a week before scheduled prostate surgery, he had his sore throat checked out at an emergency room near his home in Grapevine, Texas.

11 Mar 2024

Reevaluating aspirin for heart attack and stroke prevention in seniors

One in four older adults take aspirin at least three times a week, mostly in hopes of preventing heart attacks and strokes, a new poll shows.

7 Mar 2024

The state of the union is … busy

President Joe Biden is working to lay out his health agenda for a second term, even as Congress races to finish its overdue spending bills for the fiscal year that began last October.

7 Mar 2024

Whistleblower accuses Aledade, largest US independent primary care network, of Medicare fraud

A Maryland firm that oversees the nation's largest independent network of primary care medical practices is facing a whistleblower lawsuit alleging it cheated Medicare out of millions of dollars using billing software "rigged" to make patients appear sicker than they were.

5 Mar 2024

Only 9% of older Americans vaccinated against RSV, study finds

A new study from the Texas A&M University School of Public Health found that only 9 percent of older Americans had been vaccinated against respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) prior to this fall and winter, despite the threat of increased rates of hospitalization and deaths nationwide from the virus.

1 Mar 2024

Say that again: Using hearing aids can be frustrating for older adults, but necessary

It was an every-other-day routine, full of frustration. Every time my husband called his father, who was 94 when he died in 2022, he'd wait for his dad to find his hearing aids and put them in before they started talking.

28 Feb 2024

Without Medicare Part B’s shield, patient’s family owes $81,000 for a single air-ambulance flight

Debra Prichard was a retired factory worker who was careful with her money, including what she spent on medical care, said her daughter, Alicia Wieberg. "She was the kind of person who didn't go to the doctor for anything."

27 Feb 2024

Harvard study links PM2.5 air pollution to increased risk of cardiovascular hospitalization in seniors

Chronic exposure to fine particulate air pollutants (PM2.5) may increase seniors' risk of hospitalization for a variety of cardiovascular conditions, according to a new study led by Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

22 Feb 2024

In fight over Medicare payments, the hospital lobby shows its strength

In the battle to control health care costs, hospitals are deploying their political power to protect their bottom lines.

13 Feb 2024

Do we simply not care about old people?

The covid-19 pandemic would be a wake-up call for America, advocates for the elderly predicted: incontrovertible proof that the nation wasn't doing enough to care for vulnerable older adults.

9 Feb 2024

Senate probes the cost of assisted living and its burden on American families

A U.S. Senate committee on Thursday launched an examination of assisted living, holding its first hearing in two decades on the industry as leaders of both parties expressed concern about the high cost and mixed quality of the long-term care facilities.

25 Jan 2024

Preparing to hang up the car keys as we age

Lewis Morgenstern has made up his mind. When he turns 65 in four years, he's going to sign an advance directive for driving.

24 Jan 2024

What’s indoor air quality like in long-term care facilities during wildfires? Worse than you’d think.

Every year, wildfires across the western U.S. and Canada send plumes of smoke into the sky. When that smoke blows into southwestern Idaho’s Treasure Valley, it blankets Boise-area residents in dirty air.

23 Jan 2024

Study explores social and economic factors linked to withdrawal of life support after intracerebral hemorrhage

Living in a high-income neighborhood, having private health insurance, and being older are tied to an increased likelihood that life support will be withdrawn for people who have suffered severe bleeding in the brain, a new study shows.

18 Jan 2024

America’s health system isn’t ready for the surge of seniors with disabilities

The number of older adults with disabilities — difficulty with walking, seeing, hearing, memory, cognition, or performing daily tasks such as bathing or using the bathroom — will soar in the decades ahead, as baby boomers enter their 70s, 80s, and 90s.

17 Jan 2024

Binghamton University develops app to help study and prevent falls in older adults

Researchers at Binghamton University, State University of New York's Motion Analysis Research Laboratory have developed an app to help study and prevent falls in older adults.

16 Jan 2024

Migraine linked to increased risk of inflammatory bowel disease in new study

A nationwide cohort study reveals that individuals with migraine have a 1.3-fold higher risk of developing inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), suggesting a significant connection between migraine and IBD.

15 Jan 2024